The weather was the only thing that was out of our control! We had been working so hard to get ready for the show; KAYU MANIS; our new star, had been rushed from Singapore up to Langkawi and the crew had made sure that she was in immaculate condition.
Our catering crew carried the snacks all the way from the marina to the yacht while I was biting my nails watching heavy clouds above the island. But sure I realized that the bad weather was only directly above the island – just a few hundred meters further out on the water the sky was blue. Innumerable times I talked to the organizer of the tour and explained that we could do the sunset cruise as I was certain the weather would clear up.
“Matt, in case the guests will postpone the tour for one day – what parts of the already prepared food would still be fine?” Our young English chef turned his head to me and without any smile he responded: “Nothing, absolutely nothing!”
“Well, in case we have to postpone we will then have to do it all again, right?”
“That’s true!” The rest of the crew – ready for the action, dressed up in white uniforms was looking at me in disbelieve. “Don’t worry, guys, in that case we will make a party tonight just for us” and they cheered up.
Meanwhile the weather had brightened up a bit and just a minute later I received the phone call that the guests were on the way to the marina.
At 3.30 pm 47 people from different nations entered KAYU MANIS; took the offered welcome drinks and made themselves at home on the boat. Captain Martin and I introduced us and explained the vessel and the itinerary we had organized for this cruise.
At 3.50 the crew cast off and we slowly left Telaga Harbor to sail in the direction of the southern area of Langkawi.
Let alone for the service we had 9 experienced crew and they took all efforts to make sure our guests were comfortable.
The first snacks – salmon sandwiches with avocado slices – where eaten up immediately followed by other finger food delicacies and washed down with wine, beer or juices.
I walked around talking to our guests here and there. As some were keen to know about me and my husbands life I told some of our best stories about our 6 years of circumnavigation. “Did you see dolphins or whales on your ocean passages?” Michael wanted to know. “Sure, many times, of course!” “Tell us one of your stories, please!”
Feeling like a mother telling a good-night story to her kids I told the following story:
“Once while Gerd and I crossed the Pacific, I was alone at night on watch sitting and dreaming away in the cockpit. We had the sails up, cruising at around 5 knots in peaceful waters. Just perfect. Only the navigation lights and the stars gave a very little light; it was new moon. We were as alone on this big ocean as you can imagine; about 1.200 miles away from the next mainland Chile loving every single second of this passage.
As on those long ocean passages one of us is always on duty while the other one can rest, I set an alarm clock to make sure that I would not sleep longer than maximum 10 minutes. I was almost asleep when I heard a strange sound – like a kind of whistling!”
I made a sound with my lips “Tsssssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiii, tssssssssssiiiiiiiii.”
These business men were looking at me with excitement.
“As by the years I had become so familiar with each and every sound that comes from our boat or the sails, I set upright straight away! I had a very careful look around the horizon expecting the sound from the outside. Nothing to be seen!” I made a dramatic pause and my auditory begged me to continue the story “Well, I went inside the boat to check around but the sound surely did not come from anywhere else but outside. Back in the cockpit my eyes dropped on the surface of the water right next to our yacht and there was the answer: twenty, thirty dolphins where swimming right next to our yacht. If I would have reached out my hand into the water I could have touched them! They woke me up singing to me! When these amazing animals realized that I understood what they had done they started to play around just like children that succeeded to make their parents look like fools. In the darkness of the night they appeared as if they had swallowed thousands of tiny bulbs and they were illuminated in the most fascinating way I have ever seen. They joined me another ten minutes before they disappeared in the black night ocean!”
My guests started to understand what the ocean means to me and had a look around at the scenery in which they were sailing in this moment on a nice traditional and very strong sailing yacht, the water softly splashing against the hull and a light breeze caressing their face.
I left them alone to enjoy this magic moment. Just a few miles later we dropped anchor in front of a beach and motivated our guests to go for a swim. “Are there sharks around?” “Sure, you had lunch and now it is shark feeding time!” I joked around and jumped into the water to proof there was nothing to fear. Unfortunately I had forgotten that I carried my two phones directly on my body.
Some of our guests followed and had a lot of fun; the others were watching us having fun sipping a drink and relaxing in the sun.
Especially after the weather had been bad in the early afternoon thanks to the still partly clouded sky the sunset was truely amazing. We slowly sailed back to the marina and I was satisfied that our guests were relaxed and had a very good time. Once back in the marina they gathered for a last photo in the bow of KAYU MANIS before we shook hands saying good bye.
Together with the crew I sat for a final brainstorming and we all agreed on the conclusion that we had done a great, great job.